


I nearly shattered (I'm here now)

by Shadowmightwrite17



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: (more like it was wishful thinking before season 3 started), (sort of?), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, timecanary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:36:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22209538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmightwrite17/pseuds/Shadowmightwrite17
Summary: "It wasn't real.""It was very real."Rip Hunter has a nightmare to his hellish time as Vandal Savage's prisoner. He wakes up with Sara by his side. She comforts him, wipes the tears from his cheeks, and promises to stay.
Relationships: Rip Hunter/Sara Lance
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	I nearly shattered (I'm here now)

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I know TimeCanary is long, long dead. But this was written in the summer of 2017, before the season three teaser, before AvaLance was even a thing. I wrote a lot of TimeCanary fanfiction that summer and TimeCanary is still my favorite ship on the show. If it's not your thing, just move on.
> 
> This was all shared to my tumblr in 2017, but I don't want it to stay buried, so I'm posting some of them here.
> 
> Originally this was titled Gareeb

Gareeb

Rip pressed his cheek to the cold stone floor, shaking from the cold. He pulled the rough grey cloak over his thin, shivering frame. Even if the shackles around his wrists weren’t holding him forcefully to the ground, Rip couldn’t make himself stand. He had been weakened, starved of food and water as he was.

The metal door opened, a single pair of heavy footsteps approaching. Rip pressed his shaking hands to the floor, forcing himself up. If it was Vandal Savage he would turn and face the monster that killed his wife and son. Then Rip collapsed to the floor, his legs giving out on him.

“Hello Gareeb,” Savage greeted, sounding amused.

Rip shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again.

“Do you still refuse to speak?” Savage asked.

Rip moved slightly, shifting. He wouldn’t speak.

“Are you still claiming you will be the one that will save the world from me?” Savage asked.

He didn’t respond.

“It still seems you will not be able to live up to your promise,” Savage taunted him.

Rip shifted, trying to sit up a little more. His limbs were weak and sluggish, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could feel his muscles moving anymore. It felt like he was sinking to the bottom of the ocean, or buried deep in the sand, unable to move.

“Trying to stand once more?” Savage asked, his voice holding that taunting edge. “How pathetic your efforts are.”

Rip pushed his feet under him, digging his feet into the rough stone floor. Once more his legs gave out on him and he crashed back down to the floor again. Rip groaned, pulling at his shackles. He would not give up.

“I wonder how much longer you have,” Vandal Savage mused. “If could be a matter of hours at this rate.”

Rip hated to admit it, but he was most likely right. His body was shutting down. He could no longer think clearly, too weak or tired to make himself concentrate. It probably wasn’t long before his body would go into shock. If he went into shock, death was soon to follow.

“Or I could prolong your life, watch you suffer slowly once more,” Vandal Savage mused, sounding thoughtful.

Rip wondered if he could still bring himself to care. He wasn’t sure if he’d make it by morning. Death was closing in on him, and Rip was beginning to welcome it. He would join his wife and son, wherever they were. He’d no longer suffer knowing he’d never see them again. Maybe death would be the most merciful thing. There was one problem with mercy though.

Vandal Savage was many things.

Merciful wasn’t one of them.

The cage door opened. Rip’s eyes snapped open in a moment of rare alertness. Vandal Savage rolled Rip onto his back with his foot, staring down at him. Rip looked up at the monster, willing himself not to look away. He wouldn’t look away. With a sneer, Vandal Savage pressed his foot into Rip’s chest.

Rip gasped, feeling his chest be crushed under the weight of Savage. He pressed his hand to Savage’s leg, pawing it away, trying to push him off. The pressure on his chest increased, and Rip wheezed, unable to breathe. He felt his ribs bend, nearly breaking from the force. Vandal Savage was barely putting any effort into killing Rip, and yet Rip had never known pain like this. Rip’s vision went dark at the edges, the air pushed out of his lungs. He wheezed, his hand falling limply to his side.

Finally Savage removed his foot, staring down at Rip Hunter.

For a moment everything was black, and then Rip gasped for air, sucking it in desperately. Savage stood above him, smiling wickedly. Rip scratched his hands across his chest, still in horrific pain, and longing for death.

Vandal Savage laughed and called for the guard. The guard arrived, carrying a pitcher and a cup. Pouring water into the cup, Savage bent down so he was kneeling beside Rip. He grabbed the back of Rip’s neck, he forced Rip to sit up slightly and pressed the cup to Rip’s lips. For a moment Rip sputtered, the water spilling down his chest as he refused to drink it.

“Drink,” Vandal ordered, tightening his grip on Rip’s neck.

Rip drank, the water forced down his throat. He gulped until his lungs burned for air and he choked on the water. Rolling to his side, Rip coughed up the water, lungs still burning. He felt like he was drowning. But when the coughing subsided, Vandal Savage pulled him back and forced more water down his throat, continuing until Rip would inevitably gasp for air and cough again, water filling his lungs until he felt like he was drowning. Drowning. Drowning. Rip had never felt so helpless.

I nearly shattered (I'm here now)

Rip woke up, gasping and clawing at his throat and chest, heart pounding. He coughed, almost as if the water was still lodged in his lungs. He couldn’t breathe, lungs almost collapsing on themselves. A hand rested on his shoulder and Rip flinched away, knocking himself into the wall beside his bed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sara whispered. “It was just a nightmare, it wasn’t real.”

She asked Gideon to raise the lights a little, so the room remained dim but they could still see each other.

Rip was still gasping for air, gripping his chest. His lungs were still burning. Tears were pooling around his eyes, the images fresh and bleeding in his mind.

“Rip, stay with me,” Sara ordered calmly. She took his hand and pressed it to her chest. “Breathe with me.”

She took a deep breath, holding it. Rip followed, lungs burning. She released her breath, and Rip followed, letting it out in one gasping rush. She repeated this, over and over until Rip could follow suit, until his lungs stopped threatening to collapse in on themselves.

“It wasn’t real,” Sara whispered, her free hand brushing across his chest.

“It was very real,” Rip disagreed, shaking it head. “It wasn’t just a nightmare, it was a memory.”

She was quiet for a moment, her eyes sad.

“I almost died, I wanted to die because the pain was so horrific,” Rip whispered, voice shaking.

Sara slowly, gently pulled him into a hug, giving him room to pull away if he wanted. Pulling away was the last thing he wanted. He wanted nothing more than to feel like he was no longer there. To feel grounded in the here and now, in the safest place he knew, by her side.

“In Egypt, after my first attempt on Vandal Savage’s life, he imprisoned me. He starved me for days, giving me the smallest sips of water until he deprived me of that too. I was hours to death I was so dehydrated.”

Sara nodded, biting her lip as she rested her chin on his shoulder. That memory of her drifting in the North China sea floated to mind, drifting for days as she slowly grew dehydrated, her throat too dry to really call out when help was finally in sight.

She pulled away for a moment, looking him in the eye. Her hands never left his shoulders, holding him close.

“He came to my cell to visit me, taunt me.” Rip swallowed thickly. “Then he walked into my cell and… and…”

“You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to,” Sara whispered, knowing how hard this must be for him.

“Sara, he crushed my chest. I nearly died. He pressed his foot so hard into my chest my ribcage nearly shattered. I couldn’t breathe. I wanted so badly to die in that moment, I wanted the pain to finally be over.”

His voice was so weak, barely at a whisper. Dry and croaking and pained, the memory fresh in his mind, haunting him behind closed eyelids. Sara leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead. And somehow he was still here and she couldn’t be more thankful to have him in her life.

“He didn’t kill me. He knew I wanted to die, but he didn’t kill me. Instead he forced me to drink water until I was choking on it, and then he forced me to continue drinking. Prolonging my life so I could suffer more.”

Sara felt her heart break for him. She wasn’t someone who cried easily, not anymore, but in this moment she knew she was close to tears. She took a deep breath and met his eyes as tears slipped down his cheeks. She brushed her thumbs across his skin, wiping them away. Rip pulled her tightly to his chest, gripping onto her like she was the last piece of driftwood in the endless ocean.

“I'm here now, and I’ll never leave,” Sara promised.

"Thank you," Rip choked out, shaking in her arms.

Rip nodded, slumping back against the pillows of his bed, drained. Sara curled up next to him, wrapping her arms around him securely.

“I can’t go back to sleep,” Rip murmured. 

“We’re not going back to sleep,” Sara promised. “But I’m not going to let you go through this alone.”

His arms wrapped around her, pressing her to his chest. He buried his face in her hair, silently crying. His fingers gripped tightly onto the fabric of her black tank top, needing her close. She never let go, whispering promises that she’d always be here.

He didn’t think he’d ever be able to let her go.

**Author's Note:**

> If you still have any love for TimeCanary, please let me know. I always feel so alone with this ship.


End file.
